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“the end of a year is like the end of…life…in these last hours, the lifetime of this year passes before my eyes, and I face the inevitable question: Did I live it well?”

This is from the John Piper’s Solid Joys Devotional for December 31st. He goes on to note with encouragement that unlike our actual deaths, the next morning we will have a fresh slate to take all the insights of our “death” to make the next year better.

You control all things. Every poll, every phone call, every yard sign and hanging tad; every drop of rain and every beam of sunshine today comes from you. You raise up kings and queens and bring them crashing down at your pleasure; empires ascend and splinter at your word. Continue reading →

1/3 low income adults say they avoid smiling because of their dental issues.
17% have trouble doing usual activities because of the condition of their mouth/teeth.
~1/4 low-income adults say their oral health issues cause them to participate less in social activities.
$1.6 billion, the amount spent on ER dental visits in 2015, is the same as the amount it would cost to add adult dental benefits to Medicaid Continue reading →

On colorblind casting, and specifically the weird tension that colorblind casting can cause, e.g. in Ex Machina:

“The fact that the film is so self-aware about its most brutalized characters being robotic women of color becomes even more unnerving considering the audience is expected to forget Isaac is himself Latino.” (Angelica Jade Bastién, The Atlantic)

I just found out that Oscar Isaac is Latino! I feel a little sad for him as a fellow person of color…if I became famous and somehow the fact that I was Chinese got hidden in the process (not that this could ever happen, since I don’t have white-passing privilege anyway, but regardless) I would feel ashamed. Like Esther in the palace of Xerxes or something!

NPR has a really good and brief commentary on that.

In the day-to-day experiences of these two characters — notably both created by writers of color — sometimes race matters very little, and other times, it matters quite a bit. Just like in real life! Race is not the focus of Creed and Master of None, but neither is it treated as a coincidence without consequence — and both works are far more textured and richer viewing experiences for that honest, straightforward acknowledgment. (Gene Demby, Code Switch/NPR)

And on an utterly unrelated note, here’s another piece from The Atlantic from my friend Andrew on the “new warfare,” aka the information/propaganda war that’s going to be, the author proposes, the warfare of the future. Unfortunately, liberal democracies don’t do well at this kind of war:

While it is relatively easy for authoritarian regimes to fuse the efforts of military, media, and business entities, in democracies the interests of these groups are often diametrically opposed. For example: When the U.K. government signed a deal this fall allowing China to invest in a new British nuclear reactor, the money men at the Treasury were delighted; the moral men in the media appalled by the United Kingdom selling out on human rights; and the military men worried by Chinese penetration of British energy and telecommunications infrastructure. Of course, Western powers can unite money, media, and the military to devastating and diabolical effect when a war is declared (the lead-up to the Iraq campaigns being the most obvious recent example), but they are more at a loss when responding to not-quite-wars that are undeclared. (Peter Pomerantsev, The Atlantic)

This is especially fascinating to me, because of late I’ve been obsessively and guiltily cutting into my expensive London time to watch The Newsroom, a show that hubby introduced to me and which is honestly excellent. I’m really sad it’s over already! (And now that you know that, if you start watching and feel similarly, at least I didn’t pull a Firefly prank on you)

Many patients who have periodontal disease from a young age grow up living with the taste of blood in their mouths. And then they discover smoking…and they love it, because for the first time something is strong enough to mask that taste. (Dr. MF)

You will grow old. When you were young, you would go to institutions and gradually gather letters after your name: BA, MD, PhD. Now that you are old, you do the same thing, but they are different institutions and different letters. Your doctors will introduce you to their colleagues as “Mary Smith, COPD, PVD, ESRD, IDDM”. With each set of letters comes another decrease in quality of life.

From this essay, sad but too true. Reminding myself daily that behind each patient is a person, and that even behind all accomplishments and professional facades is a person too.

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“Choices will continually be necessary and — let us not forget — possible. Obedience to God is always possible. It is a deadly error to fall into the notion that when feelings are extremely strong we can do nothing but act on them.” (Elisabeth Elliot, Discipline)

From Mary Ann’s gchat status. Too often I have been deceived into thinking that my feelings are stronger than the Holy Spirit, or more important than obeying God’s loving will for me.

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“You are not entering into a partnership. You are entering into a union. So forget that 50/50 split business; being in a union is about giving 100%.”

From R & E’s wedding. Lately God has been exposing to me my own self-centeredness and stinginess when it comes to truly meeting others’ needs at my own cost.

Blame it on the boyfriend, blame it on 2nd year busy-ness, blame it on my own lack of initiative, but I haven’t written an entry in ages. So, here’s a little update on things I’ve been thinking about in the past few months and things I’m thinking about going into 2014!Continue reading →